BNCC/DE P. 13g
2004-2005
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
BOARD FOR NON-CAMPUS COUNTRIES AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
Friday, May 20, 2005, St Lucia
Fourth Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF4)
October 31 - November 3, 2006, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Sir John Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL),
visited the Caribbean for two weeks in February 2005. During his Caribbean tour, Sir John
visited several UWIDEC facilities, met with various PVCs, and also met with senior members of
government and non-governmental organisations. The highlight of Sir John’s visit (from our
point of view) was his speech at the launch of CARADOL, during which he announced that the
Caribbean had won its bid to co-host the Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF4)
in 2006.
The Commonwealth of Learning’s fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning will be
held in Jamaica in 2006. The Forum, chaired by Sir John Daniel and Professor Stewart
Marshall, will be organised jointly by COL and UWIDEC, in co-operation with the Caribbean
Association for Distance and Open Learning; the Jamaican Association for Distance and Open
Learning; the Trinidad & Tobago Distance Learning Association; and the Office of Continuing
Education, Open and Distance Learning at the University of Technology, Jamaica. It will be held
in the Ocho Rios resort area from October 31 to November 3, 2006.
The Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning is held biennially, co-hosted by the
Commonwealth of Learning (COL) with different partners in different regions of the
Commonwealth each time. The four-day programme is designed to address open and distance
learning through widening educational access, bridging the digital divide and by advancing the
social and economic development of communities and nations at large.
A news release by COL can be found at: http://www.col.org/newsrelease/05pcf4.htm
Further details of COL’s Forums can be found in the February 6, 2005, UWIDEC News from the
Director’s Desk at: http://www.dec.uwi.edu/smarshall/news.htm
BNCC/DE Paper 13g: PCF4
Professor Stewart Marshall, May 4, 2005